Progressing a chart is to take it forward into the present or future. As you progress through life so does your birthchart. There is more than one method of doing this. Planets in progressed charts do not move very fast from their natal position but as they do they make aspects to the natal planets and angles as well as making aspects between themselves. The house cusps, the Ascendant and other angles also progress. It is when these progressions, whether a planet or the Ascendant, change signs that the most marked events in one's life usually occur.

Progressions can be used alongside the transits to give more detailed information of the trends due to occur, or what have occurred in some past event chart. A combination of the natal chart, progressions and transits, when blended together can be very informative. Of particular interest for a yearly forecast are the progressions used alongside the Solar Return.

Progressions can also be used in attempting to rectify a birth time, although this would only be useful if some idea of the time is already known, such as: afternoon, evening etc.

Methods of Progressing a Chart

A Day for a Year

The day for a year method is otherwise known as Secondary Progressions. This method is the commonest and most logical to use. It takes the day of birth as signifying the first year of life, the next day as the second year of life and so on. It is as simple as looking up the planetary placements in an ephemeris for whatever day will represent the year of life. Each of these progressed days charts uses the original birth time, so that the Ascendant will also progress along with the planets. Naturally the outer, slow moving planets will hardly move within a lifetime. Sometimes the planets will remain stationary for years or turn retrograde or direct during that time. Generally, only the faster moving planets, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars are of interest as the rest hardly move in progressions.

The Day for a year progressed chart can also be calculated for any given time, not just for the start of the new year which would occur on the birthday. This requires calculation of converting the months into minutes and the days into seconds to arrive at an appropriate birth time for that chart. However, a simpler way to calculate this is to construct two charts for two successive years and divide the amount of movement by twelve to ascertain the movement per month. From this the exact position for any given month can be calculated. Using these kinds of progressions alongside a Lunar Return chart is very useful in determining in greater detail the trends for a particular month.

Using this method, the moon will take approximately two and a half years to move through each sign. Being the fastest moving planet in a progressed chart it will of course make many more aspects than the other planets. By progression in this manner, the moon will conjunct its natal position at the approximate ages of 28, 56 and 84, each marking an important time in the life of the subject.

Solar Arc Progressions

This technique of progression is also in common use. Only the position of the progressed Sun needs to be calculated. All the other planets and the angles are then progressed by the same amount as the sun has moved since the last progressed chart or the natal chart. This method is also known as moving all planets and angles by 1 degree for each year of life as it is just under one degree that the sun moves within a day.

Converse Progressions

By this method the day for a year is calculated backwards from the birth date. Although this sounds a peculiar thing to do, Converse Progressions are surprisingly effective.

Aspects in Progressions

The aspects are interpreted just the same as in a natal chart or indeed any other chart. Minor aspects are used in progressed charts as much as the major aspects. The aspects can be between the natal and progressed chart along with transits, and between themselves within the progressed chart. The orb of aspect generally allowed for progressions is a tight 1 degree.

Significant points in a Progressed Chart

When the Ascendant progresses to a new sign.

When a planet progresses to a new sign.

When a planet progresses to a new house. When any other angle (MC, IC, Descendant) progresses to a new sign.